additionalProbingPaths not respected after dotnet publish?

Question

I'm using dotnet 2.1.4 on Windows. dotnet --info shows:

.NET Command Line Tools (2.1.4)

Product Information:
 Version:            2.1.4
 Commit SHA-1 hash:  5e8add2190

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     Windows
 OS Version:  10.0.16299
 OS Platform: Windows
 RID:         win10-x64
 Base Path:   C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\2.1.4\

Microsoft .NET Core Shared Framework Host

  Version  : 2.0.5
  Build    : 17373eb129b3b05aa18ece963f8795d65ef8ea54

I'm using dotnet publish to create the output for a platform:

dotnet publish ..\src\ChestnutDS.Host\ChestnutDS.Host.csproj
     -c Release -o ..\..\published\win-x64
     --self-contained -r win-x64 -v n

This gives me the desired (and working) output in a folder with 323 files.

Now, what I want to do is move all most of the files into a subfolder, e.g., lib.

From what I've gathered, setting additionalProbingPaths in the runtimeconfig.json should work:

{
  "runtimeOptions": {
    "additionalProbingPaths": [
      "lib"
    ]
  }
}

But it complains about not finding the libraries:

Error:
  An assembly specified in the application dependencies manifest (ChestnutDS.Host.deps.json) was not found:
    package: 'Microsoft.AspNetCore.Antiforgery', version: '2.0.1'
    path: 'lib/netstandard2.0/Microsoft.AspNetCore.Antiforgery.dll'

Trying to pass --additionalProbingPath as a command line argument also doesn't work, same error.

Trying to create the mentioned structure and moving the file (lib/netstandard2.0/Microsoft.AspNetCore.Antiforgery.dll) also doesn't work.

Am I missing something? Was that functionality removed? It doesn't seem like it, the source code still contains it.

Looking into this some more, I see that I also need to make changes in the .deps.json file, but I haven't found the correct combination of settings to make this work yet. — Michael Stum♦
what I want to do is move all most of the files into a subfolder - Which is it? All or most? — NightOwl888
@NightOwl888 All that I can, apart from the executable the person runs and some data files (config.json, database.xml in the above example). And apart from that, only what I absolutely need. Everything else should go into the subfolder. — Michael Stum♦

Ivan Zaruba Ivan Zaruba · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-04T08:56:48

Trying to create the mentioned structure and moving the file

Looks like you have lib/netstandard2.0/Microsoft.AspNetCore.Antiforgery.dll in targets/Microsoft.AspNetCore.Antiforgery/2.0.1/runtime and "path": "microsoft.aspnetcore.antiforgery/2.0.1" in libraies/Microsoft.AspNetCore.Antiforgery/2.0.1 entry. In that case the expected structure would be <additional probing path>/Microsoft.AspNetCore.Antiforgery/2.0.1/lib/netstandard2.0/Microsoft.AspNetCore.Antiforgery.dll

There are two types of source folders, where hostpolicy.dll is searching for dependent libraries (*.dll or *.ni.dll):

regular folder (files exist in the folder's root, "path" is omitted)
NuGet cache (has a specific subfolders structure for each dependency entry <PackageName>/<Version>/<DllPath> and by default *.deps.json is generated to satisfy this convention)

Dependencies are searched in these folders:

App folder (regular folder) - the folder, where App.exe (App.dll) has been executed; default for SCD.
Framework folder (regular folder) - only for Framework Dependent Deployment, e.g. C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App\2.1.4\.
Probing Paths (NuGet cache).

Suppose we had this App.deps.json (self-contained deployment)

"targets": {
    "runtime.win-x64.Microsoft.NETCore.App/2.0.0": {
        "runtime": {
              "foo/Microsoft.CSharp.dll": {},  // <========
        }
    }
}

"libraries": {
    "runtime.win-x64.Microsoft.NETCore.App/2.0.0": {
      "type": "package",
      "serviceable": true,
      "sha512": "sha512-8jivXDJLuJTxMQuInZaMiD2VbxehFmYAtn2V9mj9juaR5jH54/OBGmGv6SrIUVNqASXB/8dJbce/beIKnOzroQ==",
      "path": "bar", // <========
      "hashPath": "runtime.win-x64.microsoft.netcore.app.2.0.0.nupkg.sha512"
    }
}

First of all, hostpolicy.dll will create a list of all assets - libraries from "runtime" and "native" properties of each dependency package.

Next, it has to create a TPA (Trusted Platform Assemblies) list with the absolute path of each asset. To do that, it will first search in the app folder <app folder path>\Microsoft.CSharp.dll (note, that it will omit "path" for this particular folder).

Once the DLL was not found, it will examine Additional Probing Paths if any.

This time, since Additional Probing Path is considered to be a NuGet cache, it expects a certain subfolders structure to exist. Specifically, it will take Package Name and Version from "libraries" section, combine "path" and DLL path from "runtime" (or "native") section.

Thus, for Microsoft.CSharp.dll the probing path would be <Additional Probing Path>/bar/foo/Microsoft.CSharp.dll

additionalProbingPaths not respected after dotnet publish?

1 Answers